[discuss] Dear ICANN - Feedback

Tue Apr 15 14:52:41 UTC 2014

On Apr 14, 2014, at 10:43 PM, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:

> I am talking specifically about what you call "root zone management"  (or more accurately a part of it), what Paul Vixie used to refer to as the "root zone authoritation (sic) role", what George is referring to as "ticking the box", what Parminder would call "IANA oversight", and what NTIA calls a "clerical role".  (No wonder people are confused!)

:) Certainly the lack of shared terms for discussion is not helping us here.

But, this is exactly the distinction I was interested in (see below).
> 
> My personal belief - which many of my colleagues disagree with - is that "oversight" is unnecessary, and it can end with the NTIA involvement. In fact, I believe everything that NTIA did can just be scrapped. Providing of course, that properly constructed consultative processes are in place before someone gives the "final tick".
> 
> You don't have to convince me of that, but you do have to convince the European Union, most nations, probably a majority of civil society and academics involved in these debates,  and at least some business and technical community interests.
> 
> That can only happen through a process of constructive engagement, not by setting up a steering committee excluding these stakeholders, and certainly not by leaving out events such as the Internet Governance Forum.
> 
> My belief is that a process which is not inclusive here will fail - and that is the worst result we can get. It may be tedious having to deal with political types and governmental types, but they are real, and they need to be involved in decision making on this. (and from ICANN's point of view, they need to be seen to be involved).
> 
> I note the draft statement for NetMundial includes some of these thoughts - so that you can be sure this is not just one errant non technical type making these statements, here as some quotes (note this is a document in progress, but this is an advanced draft emanating from the organisers after consultation with stakeholder group representatives).

OK, thanks, this is exactly the clarification I was looking for.

If I'm understanding correctly, then:

* the area that concerns you is exclusive of the areas of the IANA functions where other bodies besides ICANN (IETF, the RIRs) have the policy authority; it's (roughly speaking) at the boundary between ICANN's policy authority and the activities of IANA in operationalizing ICANN's policies.

* your concern for inclusiveness of all stakeholders is about buy-in to an outcome more than the specifics of the outcome.

If I'm following this argument, it makes some sense to me. It's important to deal with the question of oversight at the boundary between policy and operations in regards to "root zone management". It's also important to keep that question separate from a transition away from NTIA for the IANA functions that are included in the current contract but where policy authority lies outside of ICANN and where NTIA isn't even involved today in "ticking the box".

thanks,
Suzanne